The goal of terrorist activities is to intimidate people into complying with requests by posing as threats. Since Antifa uses tactics like using violence and vandalism, being an enemy of speech, acting without a legal identity, and threatening people while recording their voices, it is classified as a terrorist group. The group becomes more of a terrorist organization as a result of tactics like encrypted communication, blockades, and sit-ins, as further explained in the following part of the paper. Terrorism entails a violent and or atrocious action or a threat of similar act which is with the aim of creating intimidation and or fear against an individual, a group of people or an institution by a person or an organization with the intention of furthering of one or many religious, political and social ideologies. Terrorist’s activities include; bomb killings, shootings, and killings, attempt assassinations, plane hijacking, attacking specific religious groups, black rioting and sniper shootings just to mention but a few examples. The activities mentioned above induce fear among a group of people to further certain political ideologies in a target nation, city or individuals under attack. Antifa has participated in some events which qualify them to be a terrorist group. This paper focuses on the activities that Antifa has involved itself in making it a terrorist organization (Martin, 2017).
Antifa
According to Weiß (2015), Antifa is a term that is a short form of anti-fascist. The group aims at opposing the outspoken supporters of a nation who believe that their race is more powerful than others. During the ancient period, the fascist’s powers were under dictators which exercised complete power domination which obliged conformity in favor of a particular view. Fascists were by then used to define intolerance as well as oppressive behaviors the reason why Antifa emerged to counter such dictatorial acts. However, the group has diverted its role and begun indulging in acts which question their activism qualifying the team to be a terrorist group. The following section focuses on behaviors and activities which restricts Antifa to be a terrorist group.
Activities of Antifa that makes it a Terrorist Group
While camouflaging in protecting ideas such as racism, ending hate speech and protecting the marginalized population in the U.S., some Antifa protesters always engage in militant tactics and use of violent criterion like vandalism. The best example of such extreme means is during the inauguration of president Donald Trump, protesters of the Antifa group busted limousine windows out. Concurrently, the Antifa rioters who were opposing speech broke windows and start fires in Berkeley, Calif. The incident caused property lose worth $100,000. Despite the complains brought up by anti-fascists activists that the media is sensationalizing them by concentrating on such events and targeting them as perpetrators of violence, it is true that the group is a violent gang which is a threat to the national security (Copsey, 2016).
The Antifa group has no official group’s headquarters; members are just describing themselves as Antifa without identifying themselves with the team. It implies the team is illegal and its motives hidden in informal identities. The use of graffiti to show the group’s label in the U.S. campuses and their grassroots forums which online indicate the gang bases on hidden crude agenda. ANTIFA operates similarly to the other terrorist organizations such as the Alshabab and the ISIS which they run their operations underground (Copsey, 2016).
The Antifa group members use a technique called the black block, entailing putting on black clothes, and items such as bandanas which cover ones face making them stay anonymous while in a crowded place. The group members wear black masks and use fireworks to scare away people. The black block and hiding of identity must relate to some philosophies of the group. For instance, they might be operating on a conviction that hierarchies in an organization are wrong and that maintaining anonymity helps the members in the group to preserve their ego. Hiding identity may as well be a form of hiding Antifa’s member’s identity from camera and police. Such characters qualify the group to be a domestic terrorist group since anyone who hides his/her status from police and camera is a terrorist or a criminal (Copsey, 2016).
Sets on the right are criticizing Antifa protestors as operating out of control and being enemies of speech. The underlying reason is the mobilization of Antifa members to shut down all the statements which they disagree with in the U.S. The act has attracted some U.S. politicians to criticize the action including the U.S. President Donald Trump (Copsey, 2016).
The use of paramilitary maneuvers makes the group be a terrorist group. The act of threatening people as they record their voices and attacking the innocent citizens who stand their way makes the gang more like the terrorist group. The act of offering statements on the Antifa website threatening other teams in favor of a particular deed resembles the terrorist acts. For instance, when the Antifa Sacramento wanted immediate actions against the Nazis, upon delay to comply with their demands, the Antifa gang attacked the Nazis with weapons wearing masks. The incident left ten individuals hospitalized having cuts and wounds. The streets were shut down since the war between the far right, and the far left was merciless (Copsey, 2016).
The use of encryption communication and online operations justifies the group to be among disobedient civil teams. The team has borrowed tactics such as blockades, disruptions, and sit-ins a mirror of disobedient public engagements. Such movements operate behind politicians who need their demands to reach the mass through illegal means such as political assassinations and civil wars (Copsey, 2016).
Antifa operates under anarchist acts which are a violation of the law as well as being in contrary to the U.S. Constitution and the nation at large. The conservatives in the U.S. see Antifa as a terrorist organization. On the side of the liberals, they are not sure of how to respond to the body, but they stand on the legitimacy of peaceful protests which is contrary to what Antifa engages itself in (Copsey, 2016).
Antifa members have a belief that they will only get social equality through violence. The federal law says that a violent revolt is only justifiable if its end justifies the means. The use of vandalism and violence in rioting is not preventing the minority; the act is harmful to the community since it prevents business operations and deters the minorities from working. Terrorist are the people who affect the peace in the society. Therefore, the group is not far from being a terrorist group (Copsey, 2016).
If Antifa identifies itself as a political reformation organization, it has to come up with long-term goals which are in line with the U.S. Constitution. As such, the group will be guaranteed legitimacy and acknowledgment. When the team continues to lack enduring political goals, it will remain to be an image of violence making it a terrorist organization (Copsey, 2016).
References
Copsey, N. (2016). Crossing Borders: Anti-Fascist Action (UK) and Transnational Anti-Fascist Militancy in the 1990s. Contemporary European History, 25(4), 707-727.
Martin, G. (2017). Understanding Terrorism: Challenges, perspectives, and issues. SAGE Publications.
Weiß, P. U. (2015). Civil society from the underground: the alternative Antifa network in the GDR. Journal of Urban History, 41(4), 647-664.
